1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a system for a prediction of adhesion energy at an interface between dissimilar materials. The system predicts adhesion energy at the material interface (the energy necessary for separating two materials sufficiently remotely), or the presence or absence of adhesiveness, i.e., the parameters important for evaluation of the interfacial strength of various film materials as well as for the development of inhibitors of depositing substances.
2. Description of the Related Art
Some reports have been made on earlier technologies for experimentally measuring adhesion strength between various film-shaped dissimilar materials. Those technologies include one involving a scratch test (a testing method in which a diamond needle is pressed vertically against a coating film, the substrate is moved horizontally with a gradual increase in vertical load, to detect the occurrence of an acoustic wave or the like associated with the peeling or breakage of the film, and the load imposed at that time (critical load Wc) is measured to evaluate the adhesiveness; (xe2x80x9cStudy of Machinesxe2x80x9d, Vol. 49, No. 4, pp. 30-31). However, the conventional techniques pose the major problem that even when the same test material and the same measuring instrument are used, the reproducibility and reliability of the results of measurement are not satisfactory.
No earlier technologies have existed for the theoretical prediction of adhesion strength at the interface between various film-shaped dissimilar materials. New technologies that can realize this prediction are in demand.
An object of the present invention is to provide a system for prediction by which adhesion energy corresponding to the strength of adhesion between dissimilar materials, or the presence or absence of adhesiveness can be theoretically evaluated, without the actual measurement of the adhesion strength, if the crystal structures and the compositions of the materials are known.
The system of the present invention for attaining the above-mentioned object is a system for predicting at least one of an adhesion energy at an interface between dissimilar materials and an adhesiveness, comprising:
a first read-in unit for reading given compositions and crystal structures of the dissimilar materials;
a second read-in unit for determining all of two like-atom and two unlike-atom interatomic interaction energy parameters on the dissimilar materials;
a third read-in unit for reading material interface atomic structure model information;
a computation unit for calculating a material interface total energy relative to a distance between surfaces of the dissimilar materials on the basis of the sum of the two like-atom and two unlike-atom interatomic interaction energies; and
an evaluation unit for evaluating the adhesion energy from the distribution of the calculated material interface total energy.
The system for prediction of adhesion energy at the interface between dissimilar materials, in accordance with the present invention, makes it possible to calculate total potential energy relative to the distance between the surfaces of the two dissimilar materials by the use of an equation which expresses the interatomic interaction potential energies of diatomic systems related to the constituent atoms of the subject materials, and to predict the presence or absence of adhesiveness or adhesion strength (adhesion energy) from the distribution of the total energy.